Why is the UK taxpayer funding a millionaire supermodel and actress to build a website that replicates the "Help Needed" pages of Craigslist and Freecycle? Using information gleaned from Freedom of Information requests, we’ve attempted to find out.
The model and actress Lily Luahana Cole, a Cambridge University art history …

The words of Trillian ring true

"I don't know about impossible but it's very, very improbable."

In fact, it is so improbable I think they must have hooked up the logic circuitry of a Bambleweeny 57 sub-meson brain to an atomic vector plotter suspended in a strong Brownian motion generator to get this far.

All governments waste money, that's why it's stupid to keep on paying taxes when its spent so inefficiently. Better to give direct to business that will provide a similar service or proper charities. I say proper ones, not fake charties that are basically extensions of the government. Many of these fake charities also lobby the governemnt behind their smoke screen of "charity".

Re: 'If you're a millionaire, you literally can't fail'

They probably gave her the dosh because the "Impossible" enterprise was not intended to enrich her personally. By associating her name and brand with the project (for free), she hoped to promote the cause. I am not going to pee on her charitable enterprise, though the cabinet should obviously check for similar existing serviced first (they did Freecycle no favours).

The main thing highlighted by this article is that the Cabinet Office itself is worthy of several special investigations.

Re: so much rubbish

@Vakeyard - couldn't agree more about management speak, and every adult who indulges in it needs a bucket of water over the head.

Lily Cole deserves slightly more understanding though. She is only 26 and does not write for a living. She is never going to sound like Walt Whitman. Ditto other youngsters who have been accused of vacuous writings eg Peaches Geldof. She was 19, brought up in a millionaire celebrity bubble and some fools lacerated her for not being Earnest Hemmingway

Re: so much rubbish

quote: "Lily Cole deserves slightly more understanding though. She is only 26 and does not write for a living. She is never going to sound like Walt Whitman. Ditto other youngsters who have been accused of vacuous writings eg Peaches Geldof. She was 19, brought up in a millionaire celebrity bubble and some fools lacerated her for not being Earnest Hemmingway"

Both of those examples are good, however it still doesn't explain why a professional publication would employ someone so demonstrably unskilled at writing to write for them. Think of the rebukes as being aimed at the person who hired them for these positions. Did they not ask for demonstrations of work prior to offering them the role, or was the glare of "celebrity" so great that it eclipsed any requirement for basic writing skills? Because that is what these people are actually griping about, that someone so obviously unsuited for the role has apparently been chosen due to factors unrelated to their capabilities.

It's like hiring programmers because of their cup size or previous modelling work, rather than competence with programming languages. The output is going to be substandard and as a manager, you should expect to get called on it pretty damn quickly.

Tip of the iceberg

This is almost certainly not the worst waste of public money that is happening,but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth when a millionaire is given £200k of public money, to set up a website for which there appeared to be no demand, and if there was a demand, it could have been done for £200. It's not as if it needs to be hosted anywhere with a lot of bandwidth. Someone's bedroom on ADSL would seem to be plenty.

This needs to be seen against the background of disabled people being made homeless because they had a spare bedroom, of the same people being told they are well enough to work (including a friend of mine who died of terminal cancer 3 days after the letter telling him he was well enough to work was written), of cuts to the NHS, cuts in roads, education and just about everywhere you might need a service from the government. The only place not being cut is the government and their immediate support network. We are really not all in this together are we.

I know I've posted it before, but

I have

both reviewed and been an 'associate' (read my organisation has a joint programme - deal with it) with NESTA in the past. They do some very interesting stuff, BUT, far too much in the past was driven by individual ministerial interests, and far too much relies on the impact projects will have on their management layers. Charity allows no FOI - wonderful and a way to avoid past excesses.

Re: I have

Maybe the money buys them a chunk and they're hoping for another twitter or WhatsApp. Meantime it's jobs for the boys and keeps a bunch of 'new media gurus' busy writing carefully-faked 'wish' posts and not out in the real world irritating everybody. What's not to like?

I wish...

...that someone would develop a stupid fucking website that I can spunk meaningless drivel onto. I would gladly see some of my tax money diverted from essential services to support development of such a service.

I thought it was my lucky day but I tried impossible.com and it doesn't fucking work in Chrome 33 or IE9 on Windows 7 FFS.

"Even following very heavy media promotion"

Re: "Even following very heavy media promotion"

Well, consider that the PR firm was Freud Communications. That's the employer of Kate Garvey, who is Jimmy Wales' (third) spouse. Jimmy Wales was fully on this Impossible.com bandwagon as soon as he heard state money could be garnered. He's described Lily Cole as "like a daughter to me". So, it all comes full-circle, as a family affair.

Re: I Wish

Figurehead?

Not to be too blunt, but Ms Cole really does come across as thick as two short planks, which makes me wonder if she's not just the figurehead for some more politically-aware parasites that saw a good scam.

thick as two short planks?

Let's see: Lily Luahana Cole, a Cambridge University (going well so far) art history graduate (bugger). Art History - that's what royals do, isn't it - neither Art nor History, a bit like taking a degree in French Chemistry.

Re: Chris Miller Re: thick as two short planks?

".... Cambridge University (going well so far) art history graduate (bugger)...." Double penetration - she also has a degree from Glasgow Caledonoian, only it's an honorary degree for being a caring luvvie.

I wish

It's good to be rich

I'm reminded of something a friend of mine once said:

"I want to be a millionaire, not because I want loads of money, but because when you're a millionaire people give you stuff. Not useless stuff, but stuff that you'd have bought anyway. And they give it to you for free, just because you're rich enough to be able to buy it if you wanted it! It's brilliant!"

Re: It's good to be rich

There are one or two stories (movies) around of people pretending to be rich, and getting stuff for free just off the back of that. Free samples in anticipation of future purchases. Of cause, the character never needed to buy anything, and lived off the free samples.